Searching home
by Evilprincesspien
Summary: A young Ice-Queen appears in Storybrooke and she starts causing trouble. Regina's locked herself away from the world, Emma still has no idea how to properly wield her powers and even Gold fears this Queen. But why does he fear her? And why has this Ice-Qeen come to Storybrooke? Reasons may not be as they seem. And people even less.


**So this is half how I imagine (or more likely hope) the next season will happen. I know it won't go like this though... Still I hope you'll enjoy it non the less. If you have any tips or ideas for this story, just tell me, I love to work with others!**

"Don't!" Emma yelled, or more factually, was forced to yell through the raging, ice-cold winds. "I promise we won't hurt you!"

The young queen caused another snowstorm to appear and cried: "You lied to me! And now you are doing so again and I will not fall for it this time. You will not take my powers! You will not take my freedom! And you most definitely will not take my life!" She conjured a bunch of ice cones, sharp and deadly and send them towards the Savior who held up her hands in the only defense she could muster. The cones melted just a few inches away from her.

"This ends now." A voice came from behind Emma.

"Regina!" Emma cried, relieved.

"Regina?"

* * *

_**A month prior**_

When she'd seen the woman, who had been introduced as Marian just moments before, run up to Robin, hugging him, kissing him, she'd known this would be the end of her relationship with him. As she hugged Roland for what must have been the first time in days for her and most likely the first time for him in... ever, it broke her heart just a tad more. But she had to be fair. If Daniel had returned to her, healthy and not in pain though, wouldn't she have left Robin for her true love? The answer to that question shocked her more than anything, that realization had her running from the diner as fast as her legs could carry her. All was silent around her and how she wished she could've just poofed her way home. But it didn't work that way anymore. She cursed herself for her forgotten gloves, that would just be laying on the table by now, unnoticed by anyone. The cold February air was cutting her fingers she'd brought up to her eyes to wipe away the tears. She hadn't really ran this fast since she was a teenager and had been informed about her upcoming marriage. Just a few blocks from her house she stopped running. She looked at the road, which seemed longer than anything. On her left a row of houses, most the same old, slightly discolored white, others a classic brown. On her right the entry to a part of the Storybrooke woods. Suddenly, snow started to fall. Tiny flakes began to cover the bushes, the streets and the former mayor. She sighed and turned, wanting to be home and nothing more. Well, maybe some cider, a shower and a good nights rest.

Back at the diner, however, a mother and daughter, both the accidental cause of bringing a woman heartbreak, were beginning to wonder where said woman was. Emma figured Regina'd gone home and wanted to be left alone, but Snow, who claimed to know her stepmother better (and yes that is exactly how she put it) forced her daughter, grandson and husband out of the diner, into the cold February night in order to check up on her.

"Regina!" The short brunette had yelled after woman had failed to open her door after a minute of knocking. "Regina! It's Snow! Open up."

And so the door was opened. "What do you want?" Each syllable was barked out individually and unfriendly. It wasn't as much as a question as it was a statement for the Charming family to get off of her porch. "_Emma_." The blonde's name was snarled out as if it was an insult.

"We came to check up on you, Regina, of course. You are family and..."

"If you are going to give me the speech of family-always-sticks-together-no-matter-what you can just leave right now. I'm not in the mood. Come to think of it, I'm never in the mood for such nauseating speeches, so if you ever feel like giving me another one, save it for someone who cares."

"Mom?" Henry asked as he stepped out from behind his grandfather, blissfully unaware of what had happened in the diner, holding his mother's phone sideways, probably playing a game of somesorts.

"Henry..." Regina said. Emma thought she heard a slight sob in the brunette's voice, but she could've misunderstood. "Sweetheart, I don't feel so good. I prefer to be alone right now." She lied. "If that's alright?"

The boy shrugged. "That's fine, mom, I hope you feel better." He turned to Emma. "Ma, is it okay if I go back to the diner? I'm kinda tired, I just want to get my gameboy and be anti-social for an hour or two."

"An hour. Then you're off to bed. We still have to pack, remember?" Emma smiled and held out her hand, to which Henry groaned and handed her the phone. He then proceeded to place both hands in his pockets and skulked off into the direction of the diner.

"Packing?" Regina asked. "What packing? I thought you wouldn't take him back to New York! No, as I recall, you promised. If you think you can take my son away from me... Again! You are..."

"Whoa, Regina, untwist those panties!" Emma said, to which both brunettes gave her a disapproving look. "I found a place in town... We're packing to move out of the diner, into our new home. It's only a fifteen minute walk from here."

"Good." She said. "If that's all, I'd like you all to leave me be for tonight." Not waiting for an answer, she closed the door.

Emma sighed. "She's always rude, but somehow I don't feel insulted by it..."

"It's the way of the royals." David smirked and threw his arms around both wife and daughter, turned and started walking towards the street. "I think we're wise to let her be for a while. She's just upset."

"Since when do you know what Regina's feeling?" Emma snorted. "I don't think even she knows."

* * *

After two days had gone by without as much as a word from Regina, Emma decided to call. Okay, she had not, but Mary Margaret had not stopped pestering about calling the former queen and Emma had gotten enough of it. Regina did not answer. So she tried the cellphone. But again, Regina did not answer.

"Maybe she's on her way here?" Emma tried to reason as her mother had dragged her to her car and forced her to drive towards the Mills Residence.

"And maybe she's fallen down the stairs? Maybe she slipped and broke her neck? I don't trust this, Emma, come on, drive faster."

"The road is covered with ice!"

_Huff._ "Fine." It took a few more minutes, but then they were finally there. While Emma was still parking, Snow had already hopped out of the yellow monstrosity and ran towards the entrance of the large house. Only to be thrown back a couple of yards. "Mary Margaret!" Emma yelled. She ran towards her mother and kneeled next to her. "Are you alright?"

Snow blinked a couple of times before answering: "I'm fine. Help me up?"

"What was that?"

"She's put a protection spell around her house..." Snow explained. "Call Gold."

Emma sighed. "Mary Margaret, it's obvious Regina wants to be left alone..."

"Call Gold."

"Fine." And so the call was made and not a minute later, the Dark One appeared next to them. He started wandering around the residence, even touching the invisible globe that must be covering the house before murmuring some words and gone he was.

* * *

"Regina?" Rumplestiltskin asked the door to Regina's bedchamber. "Are you in there?"

"Rumple? How on earth did you..."

He sighed proudly. "Figured it out?"

"Yeah." She opened the door.

"My, my. Regina, you look like a mess." And she really did. Her hair, which usually was impeccably perfect without a single hair misplaced, was now up in a messy bun with hair sticking out. No make up whatsoever and her pajamas... Rumple had seen her in her nightwear often enough, always comfortable yet alluring... Well, not always comfortable, but still nothing like the oversized sweater she was wearing right now. And she looked thinner. "Did you even eat at all?" He looked past her to see some empty bottles of which he assumed used to hold liquor. "Well, you certainly kept yourself dehydrated I see."

"What do you want, Rumple?"

"Your darling family was worried. They wanted me to check up on you, seeing as they could not. So why did you put up the protection spell?"

She rubbed her eyes. "Exactly that reason. I asked to be left alone, but the Charmings never listen to me anyway so I figured, better make sure." She yawned. "And now, I'm gonna ask you to leave."

"What for? So you can just grab another bottle, call yourself alone and miserable and cry yourself to sleep?"

She glared at him. "I'm not a drunk. And I'm not going to drink anymore, for your information. As a matter of fact, I was just planning on cleaning myself and the house up and then maybe tomorrow going to see my son."

"I'm sure you are." He sighed. "Just remember. You're not alone anymore. Those annoying charmings? They call you family, not out of pity, you are their family. And mine too by the way."

She snorted. "You sure have some nerve. Calling me family? After... our past." She said, bitterly.

"I care for you Regina. I honestly do."

"We both know I was nothing more than a pawn in your game, a valuable pawn perhaps, but a pawn non the less. Until you found out that we're both related to Henry, that is." She snarled. "Now leave!" And with a wave of her hand, the Dark One was disposed off outside the protection spell, next to Emma.

"What happened? How did you get in?"

He leaned on his cane. "I thought her. I know the loopholes."

"So what happened? What should we do?"

"Miss Swan, I advise you to leave Regina alone. She doesn't want to be disturbed right now, she'll return in her own time."

* * *

And so a month had gone by. The former queen hadn't even responded to them when they almost begged for her help when the Ice Queen had revealed herself and started reigning terror down on the small town. Rumple had gone up there again, said he'd get her to come, but she didn't. Even worse, she altered the protection spell and the Dark One wasn't able to get in at all anymore. Even Henry started yelling from the steps outside her house but it didn't matter. Later, Rumple told him the spell didn't let through any noise unless Regina wanted it to. And then the worst thing had happened. The Ice Queen had send her horrible snowmen, as harmless as they might sound, they were actually ten feet high and stronger than a thousand men, and they'd snatched Henry from the park as he tried to make his way to Regina's once more. Without any other options left, Emma tried to channel her magic, which worked for once and broke through the barrier that encircled Regina's house and she pleaded with the queen. But the Queen didn't budge. She sat on her couch with a cup of tea, listening to the blonde cry about what had been going on. She didn't even seem to care when Emma told her about Henry's kidnapping. After a full hour of trying to convince Regina, the only word she said had been at the end. "Leave." And Emma knew nothing would change Regina's mind and so she left. She tried to use her magic, but failed and when she tried to just walk out she discovered the protection spell worked two ways and she had to ask Regina to let her out, which she did, with a wave of her hand.

"When I talked to her she was much emotional..." Rumple said.

Mary Margaret took a deep breath. "Do you think she reverted? Went back to her old ways?"

"No. It's something else."

"Well, she isn't helping us." Emma interfered. "We've asked her, we've pleaded with her and we've begged her. I'm not going to sit by for another second, not knowing what's happening to Henry. I'm going to the Frozen Forrest and I'm going to find that Ice Queen..."

"And then what?" Rumple said, quite angrily. "You still have no idea how magic works. You're going to beat a woman with a frozen heart with what? Your gun?"

"If I have to!"

"It won't work! I tried to kill her, I've tried every possible way! I could only dispose of her by locking her into a jar for eternity."

Emma was silent for a minute. "The jar!" She said in revelation. "That's it! We just have to lock her into that jar again."

"Oh we just have to lock her into a jar again?" Rumple said, mimicking her voice. "You stupid girl, do you know how I tried? Do you know how I succeeded? She froze a whole country! All of Arendelle! And you don't understand. In Arendelle, time goes by much faster than it does here and in the enchanted forrest. Those people had been frozen for hundreds of years there, only a couple of years here, but hundreds there. Can you imagine their faith? It wasn't like some winter-slumber. They had to stand still for hundreds of years. Locked up into their own minds. Can you imagine that happening here? If for some reason you do manage to lock her into that jar, but if I'm frozen and Regina won't return, it's up to you to thaw everybody. And who knows? You might even be frozen too."

"I'm sure Regina will return." Mary Margaret said.

Rumple snorted. "Even if, Regina can't thaw."

"Why not? It sounds simple enough."

"There isn't time for this!" Emma interfered. "We have to act now. I'm getting that jar from Zelena's shed. And I'm going over there, with or without your help."

Mary Margaret moved closer to her daughter and held her hand. "I will help you. Always. And David will too." To which her father nodded. Then they all looked at Rumple, the Dark One. And to their relief he sighed.

"The jar isn't in the shed anymore. Come on, it's in my shop."

* * *

"Okay." Emma started. "So here's what I've come up with. I'm going to try and talk to her. Maybe she'll back down. Maybe we can befriend her, as we did Regina and tried Zelena. If that doesn't work, Gold, you can use your invisibility cloak or whatever..."

"It's not a cloak, I'm not Harry Potter, it's a cape." Gold interfered.

Emma groaned before continuing. "Use your invisibility _cape_ and stay back a little with the jar. Wait for the right time and activate she spell. Okay?" He nodded. "Right, then, Mom. While we're doing that, I'm going to need you and dad to sneak into the dungeons. I'm guessing you know how a castle is build and whatever, so you'll be able to locate the dungeons, which I'm hoping Henry is, and free him. If you succeed, just run with him as far away as you can and tell him to go to Belle's. I think he'll be safest there. I've called Mother Superior, and Gold, I know you don't like it, but I've asked her to go with Tinkerbell and Astrid to your shop to protect him and take care of his injuries may he have them. If that goes well, wait for Gold's signal to return to the castle."

"It's not a cloak, I'm not Harry Potter, it's a cape." Gold insisted

Mary Margaret and David nodded and grabbed their things. Grumpy had, although not entirely willingly, lend them his and Doc's pickaxes. Rumple magically transported him and Emma to the Frozen Forrest, which was just the entry to the Ice Castle.

"Why did you transport us here and not closer to the castle?"

"As you'll learn soon enough, transporting asks for quite a bit of magic and I wanted to save some for the actual battle."

They started making their way through the snow, which was about knee-high. "So you think there'll be an actual battle?"

"I have no doubts."

Emma nodded silently and they continued walking and the farther they came, the higher the snow was. They were still a quarter mile away from the castle and it already reached their thighs. "So I know you weren't willing to share a lot about this Ice Queen but seeing as we're most likely to die soon, perhaps you can..."

He interrupted her. "She's still young, you know. Much closer to a child than an adult. When I first met her she was only a baby, barely a week old. Her parents were terrified of her powers and they asked me to take them away. But I could not. I could only bring her to a world without magic, hoping hers wouldn't work there. I asked The Hatter to bring her to such a place and instead of choosing your world, he choose Arendelle. He told me he gave her to a king and a queen who's child was ill and they gladly took her in. Months later I learned from The Hatter she was all grown up, twenty-one there, and her powers had not seized to exist. They had only grown stronger. And she had frozen Arendelle and all it's citizen for at least a year. She was terrified and angry. Her sister, the sickly child, had finally died and the Ice Queen caused an eternal winter. I went and fought with her for a long time before I was able to lock her in this jar." He held up the jar as evidence. "And I took her back and locked her in the Dark Vault of things even I couldn't handle and forgot about her. That is, until you brought her back here."

"So why is she so angry? What does she want?"

"I don't know. Maybe she wants to avenge her sister's death, for which nobody was accountable. Or maybe she just wants to kill me."

Emma nodded in understanding and after another few minutes they finally reached the castle. "Come on. I guess now's the best time to use your Invisibility-cloak."

"Cape."

"Invisibility-cape then. Hurry." And hurry he did. They walked onto the slippery stairs before reaching the grand doors that were the entry of the grand Ice Castle. "Ice Queen!" Emma yelled, and finally realizing she didn't even know her name. "I want to talk." And magically, the doors opened for them. Slowly they walked in, as though they expected a trap, which could very well happen. But then, on top of the huge stairs stood a woman. Or as Rumple had said, much more a child. Still twenty-one as she had been the day he had locked her into the jar. Hair as white as the snow she produced and a body so slim it looked like it was so easy to break. As though a single snap would do it. Yet she stood there, so regal, so cold. And that's when Emma recognized the expression. Regina had been wearing it too. The look of royalty.

"You wanted to talk." The Ice Queen said. "So talk."

Emma stepped foreword. If she was afraid she didn't show it. "You took my son."

"Yes." She said. "I did."

"Why?"

The Ice Queen laid her hands down on the banister and Emma could see it cracking. The Ice Queen was nervous, scared maybe but positively angry. "You all care for him. He just a boy. Why should he get all that love?" She said, a bit childish. "What makes him so special? What makes him so precious to you?"

"Is he alright?" Emma asked without answering her question, to which the Ice Queen nodded. "I'm Emma. Who are you?"

"I'm Elsa." She said, a bit surprised her name was asked. "Elsa of Arendelle."

Emma nodded. "Well, Elsa, you've caused a lot of damage to our town and you kidnapped my son. We don't want to cause you any harm."

"Like I'm supposed to believe that!" She yelled and more cracks were forming and slowly snow started to fall upon them. "I have powers! When the townspeople back home found out they wanted to kill me! You want me to stand down and offer my neck to you like a lamb so you can slaughter me! Well, I will not have it happen, you hear?"

"Elsa..." Emma started. "A lot of people here have powers. I have them too." As proof the Savior waved her hand softly and a misshaped pear appeared in her hand. "Granted, I'm not as powerful as you, but I've only just started learning. Almost everybody in this town possesses some kind of magic. Some can transform into wolves, another can wield fireballs. We don't want to kill those with magic here. We can help you control it, like my teacher is teaching me."

"Is that... Is that true?"

"It is!"

Suddenly Else froze. "Someone is trying to break into my castle." She said. "Who?"

"My parents!" Emma said, knowing full well it was a stupid move. "I send them to save my son in case you killed me. I wanted him to be safe... To live..."

"You're lying to me..." Elsa said. "They will save your son all right, but then the three of them will be right up here to take me life!" Wind started blowing as more and more snow was falling down. After only a minute it felt like a full snowstorm was happening inside the castle. Big chunks of ice started soaring through the space and Emma heard a loud bang and when she looked to her left she saw Gold's foot, sticking out from the invisibility clock. He was her last hope and he unconscious.

"Don't!" Emma yelled, or more factually, was forced to yell through the raging, ice-cold winds. "I promise we won't hurt you!"

The young queen caused another snowstorm to appear and cried: "You lied to me! And now you are doing so again and I will not fall for it this time. You will not take my powers! You will not take my freedom! And you most definitely will not take my life!" She conjured a bunch of ice cones, sharp and deadly and send them towards the Savior who held up her hands in the only defense she could muster. The cones melted just a few inches away from her.

"This ends now." A voice came from behind Emma.

"Regina!" Emma cried, relieved.

"Regina?" Elsa asked surprised. The snow stopped falling, the wind stopped blowing the large chunks of ice thawed.

The former major looked impeccable as she always looked but she gave Elsa a questioning look. She had expected a full-on battle in which she'd trow fireballs and tried to avoid getting hit by the Ice Queen's snowballs. "Do you know me?"

But Elsa didn't answer because she stood, quite ironically, frozen.

**So this is going to be a lovely little two-shot I think. I don't know when I will post the next chapter, I'm going on my ****holiday soon, very excited by the way, but I'll try m best. **

**I hope you'll review and I also hope you won't figure out how it continues until I post the next chapter... I'm so cruel sometimes mwahaha. No, just kidding, but please, do review!**

**Much love,**

**Pien**


End file.
